Writer: Worldwide Paralympic Committee (IPC)
Revealed: 2025/03/27
Publication Kind: Announcement
Matter: 2014 Sochi Paralympics – Publications Listing
Web page Content material: Synopsis – Introduction – Predominant – Insights, Updates
Synopsis: This report particulars the choice of the Worldwide Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Impartial Anti-Doping Tribunal to uphold an anti-doping rule violation towards Russian Para cross-country and biathlon athlete Nikolay Polukhin for pattern swapping through the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Video games. Primarily based on intensive forensic and scientific evaluation, the tribunal confirmed that Polukhin’s urine pattern was tampered with as a part of Russia’s state-sponsored doping scheme, resulting in the disqualification of his gold and silver medals. The report underscores the complexities of investigating anti-doping violations when direct constructive samples are unavailable, offering perception into the rigorous strategies used to uncover deception in elite sports activities. It’s a vital case for these invested in clear competitors, moral sportsmanship, and the safety of integrity in Paralympic occasions, significantly for athletes with disabilities who depend on truthful play in sport – Disabled World (DW).
Introduction
Impartial Tribunal upholds violation arising from pattern swapping through the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Video games as a part of the state-sponsored doping scheme that existed in Russia at the moment.
Focus
The Worldwide Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Impartial Anti-Doping Tribunal has discovered Para cross nation and Para biathlon athlete Nikolay Polukhin dedicated an anti-doping rule violation on the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Video games, and his particular person outcomes from the occasion (together with one gold and two silver medals) have been disqualified.
The costs arose from investigations by the IPC into proof offered by the World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) in relation to the state-sponsored doping program in Russian sport between (not less than) 2012 and 2015. Throughout that point interval, the Moscow and Sochi laboratories utilized a ‘Disappearing Constructive Methodology’ to hide presumptive opposed analytical findings and, on the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Video games, swapped out ‘soiled’ urine samples for ‘clear’ urine obtained from athletes for that function.
On 7 March 2023, the IPC charged the athlete with Use of a Prohibited Technique (particularly, tampering by means of urine substitution) in breach of Article 2.2 of the 2011 IPC Anti-Doping Code. The athlete admitted utilizing trimetazidine (TMZ) out-of-competition in February 2014 (which was permitted at the moment) however denied information of or participation in any pattern swapping in March 2014. A listening to was held earlier than the IPC’s Impartial Anti-Doping Tribunal. Primarily based on the detailed scientific and truth proof introduced by the IPC, the Impartial Tribunal discovered:
In 2014 a state-sponsored doping scheme existed in Russia, however the Sochi laboratory was not anticipating to need to swap samples for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Video games (because it had accomplished for the Olympic Winter Video games Sochi 2014). Due to this fact, the Sochi laboratory didn’t possess a clear urine financial institution for Russian Paralympic athletes (because it had for Russian Olympic athletes).
In the course of the Paralympic Winter Video games, the Sochi laboratory detected presumptive opposed analytical findings for TMZ within the samples of a number of Russian Para cross-country skiers and biathletes (together with the athlete). Evaluation of the samples was stopped, and the samples have been reported unfavorable within the Anti-Doping Administration and Administration System (ADAMS).
Nonetheless, as a result of the samples could be positioned in long run storage for potential reanalysis, the Russian authorities knew there was a threat that if the samples have been later reanalyzed, the TMZ findings and the duvet up could be found. To remove that threat, the ‘soiled’ urine contained in the pattern bottles was thrown away and changed with ‘clear’ urine.
Within the athlete’s case, forensic evaluation of the pattern bottle confirmed scratches and marks and a urine residue tooth mark that would solely have been attributable to somebody closing, then re-opening, then reclosing the pattern bottle. Evaluation carried out in 2018 of the urine within the bottle at the moment demonstrated that the composition of the urine had modified for the reason that 2014 evaluation by the Sochi laboratory. DNA evaluation confirmed that the urine swapped into the bottle was a DNA match for the athlete.
In response to the Impartial Tribunal there was ‘no different motive’ to re-open the pattern bottles ‘apart from to swap the urine’ and the athlete will need to have ‘actively cooperated within the provision of fresh urine to the Russian authorities for the aim of Pattern swapping’ to facilitate that. The athlete didn’t present ‘any logical or believable rationalization’ for the proof of pattern swapping along with his urine, and ‘there may be merely no different logical rationalization’.
The Impartial Tribunal upheld the anti-doping violation cost. Because the violation arose throughout Video games-time, the foundations required the Impartial Tribunal to find out the implications of the violation in relation to the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Video games solely. All different penalties for the violation (together with the relevant interval of ineligibility) shall be decided in the end by the Worldwide Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) and the Worldwide Biathlon Union (IBU).
The Impartial Tribunal discovered that the athlete’s conduct through the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Video games was ‘significantly egregious’ and ‘considerably undermined the integrity of the occasion’. In accordance with 2011 IPC Anti-Doping Code Articles 9 and 10.1, the Impartial Tribunal disqualified the entire athlete’s particular person outcomes from Sochi 2014. Because of this, the athlete will forfeit his gold medal from the Males’s Para biathlon 15km Visually Impaired competitors, his silver medal from the Males’s Para biathlon 7.5km Visually Impaired competitors, and his silver medal within the Males’s Para biathlon 12.5km Visually Impaired competitors.
The athlete initially filed an attraction towards the choice with the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport, however the attraction was deemed withdrawn in March 2025 after the athlete did not pay the advance of prices.
Jude Ellis, the IPC’s Head of Anti-Doping, stated:
“After the publication of the 2016 McLaren Report into state sponsored doping in Russia, the IPC investigated a number of extremely advanced instances associated to Russian athletes who competed on the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Video games.”
“Because of the extraordinarily distinctive nature of those instances – with no constructive samples accessible to name upon as is common in anti-doping instances – gathering adequate scientific and factual proof to fulfill the edge to cost an athlete with an anti-doping violation has been troublesome.”
“Following evaluation of an enormous quantity of knowledge obtained via WADA investigations, Nikolay Polukhin’s case met the evidential threshold to cost the athlete with an anti-doping rule violation. The decision of this case attracts a line below what has been an extended operating course of into potential anti-doping rule violations by Russian athletes on the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Video games.”
“The IPC is grateful to WADA for the help obtained throughout this lengthy course of.”
Along with Polukhin’s case, based mostly on proof offered by WADA in relation to Russia’s state-sponsored doping program, the IPC suspended Russian Para swimmer Aleksey Lyzhikhin for a interval of two years in June 2024, whereas the Russian Anti-Doping Company (RUSADA) has additionally charged a number of Russian Para athletes.
As a signatory of the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC), the IPC stays dedicated to a doping-free sporting surroundings in any respect ranges. The IPC has established the IPC Anti-Doping Code in compliance with the overall ideas of the WADC, together with the WADC Worldwide Requirements, anticipating that, within the spirit of sport, it’s going to lead the battle towards doping in sport for athletes with an impairment.
Editorial Observe: The IPC’s dedication to investigating and addressing advanced doping instances, even years after the occasions, demonstrates the group’s dedication to truthful competitors and clear sport. This case serves as a reminder of the long-lasting penalties of doping and the significance of sustaining vigilance in anti-doping efforts. The report’s detailed rationalization of the proof and decision-making course of gives transparency and reinforces the credibility of anti-doping measures in Paralympic sports activities. Whereas it took years of investigation and forensic scrutiny to ascertain the violation, the end result reaffirms the need of relentless anti-doping efforts to protect the integrity of competitors. The IPC’s dedication to accountability ensures that even extremely subtle doping schemes can’t go unpunished, setting a precedent for future enforcement in Paralympic and Olympic sports activities – Disabled World (DW).
Attribution/Supply(s): This quality-reviewed publication was chosen for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) attributable to its relevance to the incapacity neighborhood. Initially authored by Worldwide Paralympic Committee (IPC) and revealed on 2025/03/27, this content material could have been edited for type, readability, or brevity. For additional particulars or clarifications, Worldwide Paralympic Committee (IPC) will be contacted at paralympic.org NOTE: Disabled World doesn’t present any warranties or endorsements associated to this text.
